It’s gettin hot in here

so take off….all your wool? Did anyone else notice the sudden jump in temperature the last few days? My goodness! I finally broke down and closed the front doors and turned on the A/C. It looks like we are in for some cotton and hemp knitting the next few weeks.

Meet the furry friends of the Maryland Sheep and Wool Festival, which was last weekend. These guys are Angora goats…but not where angora comes from. They are the source for mohair yarn.

This adorable thing is where angora yarn comes from. He was for sale. Luckily Phil was with me and expressed very little interest in owning a rabbit. Phil also expressed his displeasure at being tricked into attending a yarn festival. I may have exaggerated how much he might enjoy eating gyros and fried dough and downplayed the “stand in line for an hour for yarn” part. After this and the drag queen bingo trick (another story entirely), he may never go anywhere with me again.

If you did make it to the festival this weekend, you probably visited this place at least three times. It was HOT. Not exactly the ideal weather for buying wool.

Perhaps you saw Veronica at the Miss Babs booth? Babs “borrowed” her for the weekend. She proudly wore her fibre space™ shirt, of course. She looks a little shell shocked. The booth was a tad busy all weekend 🙂 We are super proud of Babs’ success at her first every MSWF show!

I finished my lace socks!

I realize that you have already seen this photo. I swear there is another sock. I swear it. I did manage to write up the pattern and it will be posted on the Inspiration blog soon. Check back later today! Because I used Socks that Rock medium weight (which you may have bought at the festival this weekend), I recommend using a heavy fingering or even sport weight if you want to get the same gauge.

Knit Tip for the Day

It is helpful to read a pattern before you start knitting it. Sometimes you might even want to read the heading on the section that you are knitting before emailing the designer to explain all of the errors in the pattern that don’t really exist because you are incapable of reading a heading. yeah…um, sorry about that Olga. I was knitting along at the Puzzle Vest pattern from Olga’s ori ami knits collection and thought that I was knitting the back of the vest when really, I was knitting the back AND left front. So when the pattern told me to bind off on the right edge and then somewhere in the left middle of the fabric, I was concerned that Olga had me making a big hole in the back of the sweater…until I realized that she had me making an ARMHOLE. I wish there was a “recall” button on gmail. I had the email sent and then realized my error a few seconds later when I looked down at the pattern and saw the big ol’ header “Back and Left Front.” So here is my back and left front, worked in Louisa Harding Mulberry silk in two colors that I did not pick out myself because I can’t be trusted to knit anything other than red or green or various shades of red or green.